Shadows at Sundown
by Kit-Kat015
Summary: After an entire year of hearing nothing from their arch enemy Dark Kat, the SWAT Kats are surprised to hear that his big comeback is kicked off by, in essence, stealing books and office supplies. But only seconds after the call is made out to them, before they can head out, a violent collision down a bumpy back road leads to a life-changing find.


_A/N: It's genuinely been YEARS since I even attempted any SK fanfiction, so I might be a wee bit rusty with characters... and opening chapters are always my Achilles Heel. But with the recent reboot reviving my hype and love with it, and with an Alternate-Timeline ask blog on tumblr having absolutely zero context, I figured I'd give the character that the blog revolves around, and her history and role in the story, a bit of context._

 _I'm hoping to update this every Wednesday and Saturday, though there will be frequent edits as I go along and find more mistakes, so bear with me._

 _This story's more or less a precursor to whatever happens on an ask blog I made on tumblr, as well as a series of one-shots and small drabbles I'll be posting every now and then. There WILL be a bigger story coming out about this at some point, though not for a good while. I'll link to the blog at the bottom._

 _Lemme know what you think and what I could do to improve!_

* * *

Down the remote back roads on the outskirts of Megakat City, past the dense and even the thin suburban neighborhoods just outside of the city, scrapped metal and destroyed vehicles stretch for nearly a mile or two across the city's Salvage Yard and Garage. There was hardly ever a night where its two working mechanics don't get much work, garbage and scrap piling in by the truckloads bi-weekly. When one car went out, five more took its place.

A broken down dark blue Sedan was the latest endeavor of the originally reluctant mechanics. The bright blonde tomcat at the driver's seat leaned back with his elbow propped out the open window a bit as he awaited the sign indicating the shortest turn back to the garage. Even if he didn't have the tow truck's headlights on or the assistance of the full moon's glow in the dead of night, Chance Furlong could recognize the turn from a mile away.

"Chance, for the love of everything pure and good, get your eyes off the right side of the road," the rusty brown tabby snorted with a roll of dark brown eyes that glared out the window he slumped and leaned against, ears pressed down against the back of his head in irritation. "That turn of yours is satanic. Driving shouldn't physically injure me without another car involved."

"Would you rather get there faster or intact?" Chance laughed slightly as dark blue eyes glanced over to his disgruntled friend.

"Intact," Jake Clawson shot back, eyes rolling over to glare at him. "At the very least, slow down."

"Kinda defeats the purpose, bud."

Jake gave an exaggerated grumpy pout and folded his arms across his small chest with a soft snort, bringing his legs up to secure the warm, fresh pizza box in his lap. He lightly glared out the window to wait for the inevitable turn he had slowly grown to despise. He was only grateful the moonlight made his usual night vision unnecessary and he'd be able to gauge where the turn was and prepare for it. Chance gently nudged him with his elbow, the length of his arm allowing him to keep a hold on the wheel.

"Aw, c'mon, Jake, don't pout," Chance urged with a more lighthearted, genuine inflection. "I go the long way, you'll only get half of Litterbin tonight, and pizza'll be cold by the time we get home. Sure, you'll have eight bruises, but you'll get hot pizza and a full show, too."

Jake slowly sat back up and relaxed a bit against the leather seat, uncrossing his arms to play with the labeled cardboard box in his lap as his tension eased up. His pout eased up also, lacking the will to force it anymore.

"Your concern for me doesn't disguise your love for my own misery, Chance," Jake mumbled as grumpily as possible, though he softly grinned despite himself.

"Ok, yeah, fine. You're too much fun on this shortcut too," Chance admitted with a smug smirk and a shrug. "And there are too many pros than cons, and you know it."

"Just take mind of the pizza, butthole," Jake directed with another roll of his eyes as he slumped back a bit more. "If I hit my head on the window more than five times, I'm chucking it out the window and you're paying for Chinese take-out."

"Fair enough." Chance leaned against the window as his toothy grin widened towards his playfully grouchy friend. "Nevermind the fact that we share a budget."

"Pretending we don't makes me feel better, Chance," Jake scolded lowly despite his smirk and forceful shove against Chance's shoulder.

Allowing himself to be pushed into the window for a moment, Chance held the briefest of a cheeky grin before both their ears perked up at the sound of a soft, familiar alarm announced by the flashing bright red light on the console beneath the radio. Chance quickly reached down to switch the alarm off and seamlessly abandoned his jovial tone for a more serious one. Jake sat back and leaned slightly to listen more closely.

"Evening, Ms. Briggs." Chance had to hide his ever-lasting, never ending glee that rose up in his chest whenever he was called as T-Bone was not Chance. By now, though, he'd gotten used to on-a-dime transitions. "What's the trouble?"

"Plenty, considering the Enforcers just lost track of twelve confirmed Dark Kat cargo trucks," the Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs reported on the other end with an almost tired tone, the shake of her head and brushing past her blonde bangs practically visible on the tomcats' end. It wasn't that late at night, so both secret SWAT Kats could only surmise it was more a 'getting sick of this shit' brand of tired.

"It's about time that scuzzball's finally rearing his ugly head again," Jake spat lowly with a snort at the mention of their long silent worst enemy.

"How the hell do you lose track of twelve trucks in streets the size of a tuna can?" Chance didn't even really need to mindfully disguise his voice as he threw up his free hand and shook his head; irritation and exasperation sounded the same between Chance and T-Bone anyway.

"Lt. Steele found a way," Callie mumbled, briefly muffled by what they could guess was her rubbing a hand down her face.

"How is he still on the force, let alone a Lieutenant? What, is he just there to act as the scapegoat now?"

"I wouldn't be surprised, honestly. But that's besides the point. According to Commander Feral, all twelve of the cargo trucks scattered in separate directions. They'll be pretty hard to track at this point, but I was hoping you guys could find at least one of them and see what they're up to."

"We can do you one better and trace one of the trucks back to Dark Kat himself," Chance encouraged with new confidence as he finally took advantage of Jake's inability to stop him, hooked a right and turned onto his well-known shortcut back to the garage. Jake leaned back against the corner between the seat and window again and held in his grunt, silently frowning at Chance's unapologetic grin. "A quick tracking device and the silent engines on the Cyclotron will take care of that. The hard part would be finding one of the trucks. Any idea what they stole?"

"Several places all over the city were hit, but nothing of consequence seems to be missing. At least, not so far. The Enforcers are still looking into it," Callie reported as the annoyance died to adopt a bit more professionalism. "So far, none of the entrances have been noticeably forced; no explosions or any real property damage. Some places didn't even have their alarms go off until after the fact. I know that the Manx Memorial Library and Megakat University were hit, but I haven't gotten word on the other locations."

"The Library and University?" Chance glanced over to Jake with a frown, who could only offer the same confused frown. "So you're saying they actually spent money and resources to break into buildings they'd have public access at any time… to steal books and papers? What, they don't have internet access or something?"

"Books, files, classified documents… chemicals from the university's science labs, maybe?" Her helpless, embarrassed shrug was practically audible in her tone. Now that Chance said it back to her, it did indeed sound a little silly, knowing Dark Kat's usually grander and larger scale schemes. "It'll take a bit of time for the investigation to sort out what all was stolen."

"We'll head out and see what we can find, Ms. Briggs," Chance assured her with a confident nod.

"Thanks, guys." Callie's voice finally seemed to die into apologetic sheepishness; now that she said it, it probably sounded like nothing worthy of calling the SWAT Kats for, as far as Chance and Jake could tell. Callie's self-awareness and consideration of others made the both of them feel too lucky to know her in one persona, let alone two. "It might not be anything too big to worry about it if was just 'raid for office supplies', and I know Dark Kat normally doesn't shoot for small potatoes like that, but those were definitely Dark Kat cargo trucks, so… I'd just like to be sure. Besides, I thought it might be a good lead on Dark Kat's whereabouts."

"Good call," Jake assured her to ease her conscience and settle her uncertainty. "We'll letcha know if we find anything, Ms. Briggs. SWAT Kats out."

"Good luck, guys!"

Chance quickly flicked off the tow truck's personal Klaxon and instantly sent a childish grin at the thin glare Jake was shooting him. Jake repositioned himself in a bit of a slump against the corner between the window and the seat, clinging to the upper handle above the window made for clothes hangers with one hand and pressing the pizza box to his chest in the other. He propped his foot against the glove compartment to lock his body in place as best as he could, ignoring Chance's good-natured laughter.

"You realize how over-dramatic you're being about this, right?" Chance finally laughed as he settled down against his seat. "Come on, my driving isn't that bad, is it?"

"Maybe not," Jake grumbled with another eye roll as he straightened in his seat as best as he could. "But I do sometimes question who gave you your license."

"C'mon, Jake, relax. We're almost at the turn." Turning his head back to face the road, albeit slowly, he didn't notice Jake lowering his leg back down or his eyes widening and growing big. "We'll be back at the garage before you can say–"

"Chance, watch the road!"

Chance instantly straightened and sat up at Jake's frantic order and the sudden honking of an approaching vehicle racing towards them, only barely catching it with the moonlight's help without the other's headlights on. He loudly swore as he jerked the wheel to swerve out of the way. Neither he nor Jake were entirely sure what happened under the blur of the sudden jerk, as the ground certainly wasn't smooth enough for an effective swerve around the fast approaching vehicle. They felt a sudden snap and rattle in their bones as the left side of their front bender slammed into the back of the vehicle, kicking their tow tuck back as they could overhear the flipping and crunching of twisting metal and shattering glass. The scraping of metal against metal was like claws on a chalkboard, and they were sure the Sedan snapped around with the towing hook to slam into the front of the vehicle mid-swerve. Chance slammed on the brakes and leaned back against his seat as he pulled on the wheel to set the tow truck back on stable ground.

By the time the tow truck finally came to a stop, neither Jake or Chance had the will to move. Chance blinked and forced himself to breath again with a shake of his head before looking over to Jake. Thankfully, he found Jake still squared against the back of the seat with wide eyes and a swelling chest from held in breath before Jake forced himself to let out a tense breath.

"Did we just kill him?" Jake gasped through regained breath with controlled fear in his tone as he glanced to Chance, brow tight and eyes big.

"Eeeeeeh…" Chance risked a glance over his shoulder out the window and winced at the wreckage behind him. "…I'm sure he's fine."

"Come on," Jake ordered swiftly as he regained his composure, unbuckling his seat belt and opening the door to get out. "We should help whoever it was before we get arrested for katslaughter."

Chance nodded in agreement, undoing his own seat belt and hurrying out the door with a slam. He heard Jake falter, but only long enough for new light to shine over onto the wreckage from what Chance put together was a flashlight Jake fetched from the glove compartment. Thankfully, the chilling effect of the night made the previously sticky and humid July weather a bit more bearable. Chance wormed around to the other side of what they found to be a pick-up truck, while Jake climbed up onto the driver's side to check on the driver. Chance found the tarp covering the cargo, as well as the cargo itself, torn away from the force of the crash. Boxes and crates of all sizes were scattered across the side of the road; some whole, some cracked or broken. He picked up a smaller one to inspect it.

"How's the driver, Jake?" He called as his eyes adjusted to the dark to inspect the box's six sides.

"Unconscious, but I don't see any major injuries," Jake called, body halfway in the open door as he checked the driver's vitals. "A few cuts, probably a concussion. But his pulse is fine, breathing is fine, and I don't see any big injuries. But he's definitely gonna feel it."

Once Chance's eyesight finally adjusted, he turned the box over in his hands until he finally caught a sight that almost made him snarl; the familiar logo of a green cat's head symbolizing their oldest and biggest enemy. He snorted and moved around to the other side of the truck to meet with Jake.

"Jake, gimme a light," he hollered up with a bit of a grunt. "I think I found something."

Jake picked himself up out of the truck and turned to shine the flashlight down on the box in Chance's hands. Chance saw Jake's concerned look turn to a grimace when the light confirmed what he'd already expected. Chance dropped the box and worked his way around back to the tarp, and when Jake moved across the truck's side to offer him light, Chance pulled the tarp up and found a bigger version of the logo on the bottom part of the tarp.

"Dark Kat," Chance spat in disgust. "What a coinky-dink."

"Pass me the tarp," Jake ordered, reaching down to accept the tarp. "I'm gonna restrain him. We'll come back later to hand him over to the Enforcers."

Chance nodded and passed the tarp up to him. As Jake moved away, Chance glanced amidst the destroyed boxes with disgruntled curiosity. He kicked over one of the larger ones and found several papers and files spilling out of it. That seemed to be the majority of what decorated the side of the road; wood, papers, and file folders.

"One down, eleven to go, I guess," he sighed in exasperation, folding his arms tight across his chest with a snort as his tail flicked behind him with agitation. He could feel the fur on the back of his neck sticking up on end.

As he waited for Jake to give him confirmation that the tomcat was properly restrained, he paced around for a good two minutes before his ear twitched at a brand new sound. He couldn't tell what it was at first until he looked around and turned to face where the source was coming from; tiny whines? He slowly approached where he thought the noise was originating from, and as he grew closer to a small box he hadn't noticed before due to its very dark color. Jet black wood had barely been damaged or scratched, and as Chance drew closer, he began to recognize the source of the noises he was hearing:

Those were cries. Specifically, the cries of a kitten. He'd recognize those sharp mewls and frightened cries anywhere.

He instantly dropped to his knees and took the box in his hands, looking for a way to open it. His heart had just gotten back to a resting point when it started to pick up a little again.

"Jake, get over here!" Chance felt the outline of a lid and he extended dark brown claws to sink in between the two sides of black wood and pry it open.

He heard Jake jump off and dash over to him. He was sure Jake was going to ask what was wrong before hearing the cries himself. He grabbed the sides of the box to try to hold it down and give Chance some leverage to pry open, holding the flashlight with his flexible tail and using it to give Chance some light. When Chance finally managed to rip the lid up, he paused and slowly peeled it off and off of the box so as not to injure the tiny life inside with stray splinters. He tossed the lid aside when it was finally ripped free.

Jake pulled the flashlight back to avoid shining the light in the eyes of the squirming mass inside, but took it into his hands and shone it down far away enough to where they could still see. What they found confirmed their suspicions but still left them stunned in their spot. They almost couldn't believe that they were staring at a small, coal black kitten squirming amidst a soft purple blanket, paws clenched tight into fists as terrified mewls left it in soft squeals. Chance hesitantly reached in to hook his large paw under the kitten's back to try to move it, and upon his touch, the kitten risk opening its eyes to see what was touching it. Its cries softened into gentle hiccups and whines as it looked up to them with soon wide, bright violet eyes. Its ears flicked upwards as its scrunched up face slowly relaxed in curiosity upon seeing new faces.

Chance glanced up to Jake to look for a reaction, but found Jake staring down to the tiny bundle with the same shock and surprise Chance was sure he was exhibiting. With a deep, shaky breath, Chance reached in with his other paw to delicately pick the kitten out from inside the box, keeping it hovered over the safety of a small dark pillow padding her. Jake knelt down beside him to run his fingertips and thumb gentle across her forehead and cheeks to look for cuts or bruises under the fur, but found very little of consequence.

"Jake," Chance breathed with a shake of his head as Jake withdrew, trying to shake of the lingering shock. "…This is a kitten."

Jake grinned wryly and offered him a helpless shrug. Neither of them were too sure whether to be amazed that this little one survived such a forceful and violent crash with little to no injuries, or dumbfounded that such life was in one of Dark Kat's truck to begin with. It might have been a bizarre blend of both.

"There's a kitten… in a Dark Kat cargo tru–"

Chance couldn't even finish his shocked statement before the kitten's eyes widened further and it let out a heart-wrenching shriek, its eyes clenching shut as its body curled up into a tiny ball. Chance looked up to Jake in a frantic begging for aid in getting the violently shivering kitten o calm down, and Jake quickly put the flashlight down and put his hands under Chance's. He moved Chance's hands to bring the kitten close to his body, and Chance locked up where he knelt, allowing Jake to slide the kitten into a cradle in Chance's arms. Chance supported his left arm with his right and stiffly cradled the kitten against his chest.

"This isn't helping," Chance muttered with stiffness and nervousness in his voice despite the motion steadily quieting the kitten's screams and cries to soft whimpers. "Jake, you're putting me in a bad position here, dude. I can't…"

"Just do it for the sake it quieting him-or-her down, Chance," Jake insisted gently as he knelt beside the two to make sure Chance had a secure hold of the kitten.

"Wha… What do you think the kid was doing in a cargo truck… in a box?"

Jake reached over across the baby to peel back the small blanket and glance around a bit before wrapping the blanket around the kitten again with a laugh.

"Well, for one thing, she's a girl. Ya know, just for the sake of pronouns," he chuckled before his smile fell and his eyes fell on the open box with concern. "But… of all things to find on one of… his trucks, I never would have imagined finding a kitten."

Chance looked down with rising anxiety to the tiny kitten Jake had just passed into his arms, watching her steadily quiet down before chancing another glance up to him. She lay there looking up to him with analyzing eyes, her paws testing the safety of his mechanic's uniform. Once she seemed sure that it was safe, she took a weak grip of it and squished her cheek against the fabric, giving the tiniest of smiles and a pleased mewl. Chance couldn't fight a crooked smile as he brought up a hand to gently pet her forehead and cheek, scratching behind her ears. Her smile grew as she leaned into the touch, a loud purr rumbling in her chest and throat audibly. Chance could feel a stubby tail wiggling in between the two sets of fabric.

"She's gotta be overheated," Jake surmised as he reached over to feel the kitten's forehead and cheeks, nodding as he confirmed himself. "Black blanket and box, totally black fur, with no insulation, in the middle of July? She'd be lucky to walk away from this with a fever. Ya know, car crash not withstanding."

"Maybe we should take her to that local clinic to have Dr. Snow check her over." Chance picked the kitten up to support her under his arm and around her back with one hand and her rump with the other as he brought her up to his face, unable to fight his grin as he hoped to entertain her with a nudge of his nose against her tiny one. The kitten gently giggled and reached up to tug at some of the fur on his cheek, though Chance kept her far away enough so she wasn't climbed onto his face and head. "We can give her enough context to figure out what to do from here. We can call the Enforcers from the garage."

For the briefest of moments, Chance lost where he was as he let the kitten tug on his backwards hat before bringing her back down into a cradle. He watched her snuggle comfortably into his forearm and lean back into his chest like before, a more gentle, quieter purr rumbling her up back and throat this time. There were just some things that a kitten could do adorably that, when done by anyone else, would have be 'meh' worthy or annoying.

Within that brief moment where the kitten seemed to have Chance's undivided attention, the sounds of the truck creaking and the safety of a gun clicking didn't even register.

* * *

 _A/N: Ya know this took me, like, 2 weeks to plan and then all of two days to actually write? XD_

 _Anywho, like I said, most of this is just a precursor/explanation for things that take place in this in-character ask blog I'm running:_

 _Feel free to drop by and take a look. It's pretty new, so I'm still gettin' into the swing of it. Got some pretty informative asks already in there, for some fun trivia on my headcanons of the SWAT Kats, as well as a reference pic of the kitten introduced here. = Got some memes in there ready to answer for anyone who's curious._

 _Was this entire story mostly just a plug for my blog? Eh, it's, like... 45% a plug. But it's also to add some context to it. XD So head on over if you feel inclined and I hope you enjoy. =_


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